


Sisters of Brothers

by MelyndaR



Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:33:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23479285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: Sarah asked, “Is everything okay?”“Well… no. Tim’s missing – since last Thursday.”
Relationships: Abby Scutio & Luca Scutio, Delilah Fielding & Abby Sciuto
Kudos: 8





	Sisters of Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place between the end of season fourteen and the beginning of season fifteen.

“Sarah McGee?”

“Yes,” Sarah answered distractedly, still mostly absorbed in looking over her lesson plans for the next day.

“This is Abby Scutio. I work with your brother, Tim.”

“Yeah.” She remembered hearing about the other woman from various tales of her brother’s. Though they’d never been introduced to one another, Sarah suddenly noted the nervousness in Abby’s tone. Sitting back from her laptop, eyes narrowing – though Abby wouldn’t know that from over the phone – Sarah asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Well… no. Tim’s missing – since last Thursday.”

Sarah froze, and there was a beat of silence before she breathed, “What?”

“Well, it’s not as bad as it could be.” Abby fumbled while instantly trying to reassure her. “We know he’s got to be in Paraguay. And he’s got Gibbs with him, so that’s a good thing. I’m sure he’s fine, I just—”

“You just what?” Sarah drew in a breath, trying to curb her temper when Abby hesitated. “You thought that maybe somebody ought to notify his sister a _week and a half_ after he went missing?”

“Look,” Abby sounded near tears now. “It’s not Director Vance’s job to notify anyone but the person listed as nearest of kin, and that’s Delilah, now, for McGee, so that’s what he did, but Delilah’s buried herself in work and the biggest unsanctioned combination of NCIS, DOD, and NSA resources that’s ever existed. To be honest, we’ve all been a little out of it, so yesterday was the first time I even thought that – well, that I remembered you existed, and thought maybe Delilah hadn’t called you.”

_No, she hadn’t._

It was nothing new for Sarah to go a couple weeks without hearing from Tim, let alone Delilah, though she had noticed their recent silence on social media. She had wondered, but she hadn’t really thought anything about it. Until now.

She closed her eyes, leaned back against her couch. What happened? How did he end up in _Paraguay_?”

Abby chuckled wetly, beginning to explain, “He went on a rescue mission with Gibbs and Torres, and when things went sideways, they made Torres stay with the kids while they went back into the jungle. We were never able to find where they came back out.”

“So, my brother and Gibbs are lost somewhere in the jungles of Paraguay, surviving on their own in the wilderness?”

“Not… exactly.”

“What do you mean?!”

“It’s just… they ticked off some pretty powerful human trafficking people, and if they haven’t been found by now, it’s probably because they’re being… held.”

“Oh.” Sarah drew in a breath to keep herself from puking all over her laptop. “Okay. That’s great.” Sarcasm would’ve been dripping from her voice had it not come out far too faint.

“We’re spending every possible minute looking for them, and we _will_ find them, I promise. I just wanted to make sure that you knew.”

“Well, I do now. Thank you, Miss Scutio.”

“Sure.”

“Miss Scutio – Abby –” she said hurriedly before the other woman could hang up.

“Yeah?”

“Could you keep me updated if there’s any news?”

Abby hesitated a beat before she answered, “I’ll try my best.”

They hung up then, and Sarah drew in another deep breath before making herself refocus on her lesson plan. No matter how worried she was about her brother, worry didn’t help anyone. Working on her lesson plan, however, would help everyone in her classroom tomorrow.

* * *

“I purposefully didn’t tell her, Abs! Tim wouldn’t want her to worry. When he comes home, she could’ve been none the wiser, but now she’s going to be just as worried as the rest of us until we find him.”

“I’m sorry, Delilah. I just thought she should know. I would want someone to tell me if it were Luca or Kyle, that’s all.”

Delilah looked away, blinking back tears of exhaustion and emotion. “You should’ve asked,” she replied wearily.

“Yeah,” Abby bit her lip. “Probably.”

Delilah raked a hand through her hair. “It can’t be helped now, though.”

“True. But I already told her I would keep in contact with her, so that’s not something you have to worry about if you don’t want to.”

“Thank you, Abby.”

“Because I would never, ever do anything that would put more on you right now.”

Abby had been twisting her hands throughout their whole conversation, and now Delilah impulsively grabbed them, doing her best to smile reassuringly. “I know, Abby, I know. I’m just… afraid that if I talk to Sarah, I’ll exacerbate whatever she’s feeling and make it worse for her. But I do trust you to know how to best care for people – including her – right now, if that’s something you’re willing to do.”

Abby nodded without a moment’s hesitation. “Absolutely.”

* * *

“I brought dinner.”

Luca Scutio held up a bag of takeout from his own restaurant. He’d been in his big sister’s apartment for all of two minutes, and already he was looking for a way to put some light back into her worried eyes.

“Great.” Abby smiled wearily, but the weariness in her eyes didn’t even dim.

After losing his job a year ago, Luca had taken his admittedly impressive saving and bought a small café of his own in DC. It had been a big move, yeah, but with less and less of his family staying in Louisiana, it had been an almost easy decision to move closer to Abby.

Now he was glad he had.

He hadn’t seen Abby this down, this worried, since NCIS had been after _him_. It was an interesting comparison, and it left him worried for her – for the whole of her team, really. At least for his sister, he did what he could, including bringing her dinner.

Luca had reheated the takeout and sat beside her on the couch before she remembered to say distractedly, “Thanks.”

Abby had her laptop on her knees, though, and was staring at it, clearly working and with no real interest in the food.

“Abby.” Luca tried to place her plate on her keyboard. “You need to eat.”

“I’m fine, Luca.” She shoved the plate away and kept typing.

He frowned. “When was the last time you ate?”

“Breakfast bar as I left for work this morning. Bishop kept me full of Caf-pow otherwise.”

“That’s a dehydrator, Abby. You need real food, and water.” He reached forward, shut her laptop, and put the plate atop it. “Eat.”

She glared darkly at him but picked up her fork. When she took her first bite, he muttered “thank you,” then stood to get her a glass of water. Returning, he set the glass on a side table, picked up his own plate, sat down beside Abby, and asked, “What’s up with you?”

She glared at him again. “You know Gibbs and McGee are missing!”

“Yeah, but there’s more going on in your head tonight, isn’t there?”

Abby sighed, stabbing her shrimp a bit more sharply than was necessary. “So, Delilah, McGee’s wife. I thought I was doing her a favor today. I called McGee’s little sister, Sarah, and made sure she knew what had happened to Tim. She didn’t – I was the first to tell her – but when I told Delilah what I’d done… it turns out Delilah had kept Sarah in the dark on purpose, so now she’s even more stressed, thanks to me. _And_ Sarah asked _me_ to be the one to keep her in the loop," Abby continued, as if in an aside, her shoulders dropping as she finished, “So there’s that, too.”

“I’m sorry, Abby,” Luca said sincerely, watching her with now-empathetic eyes. “That sounds like it sucks.”

“Most definitely,” Abby replied on a sigh.

“Except,” Luca said, reaching for her free hand. “As I recall your team, they’re all really strong.” He knocked his shoulder, gentle and companionable, against hers with a smile that was meant to bolster her spirits as he added, “Especially the women.”

Abby huffed out a breath of a laugh, feeling mildly better as she leaned her head onto Luca’s shoulder.

“You’ve got this, sis,” he reminded her firmly.

She squeezed his hand, glad that someone had the unshakable faith in her that she was struggling to find in herself for now. “Thanks, Luca.”


End file.
